# Classic Painterly Portrait

> This prompt instructs the AI to take the provided photo and render it as a realistic oil-on-canvas portrait, preserving the subject’s key identity traits (facial features, expression, and hairstyle) while applying soft brushwork, visible impasto texture, and smooth color blending. It specifies a warm pastel palette and a gently abstract background in peach, blue, and cream, with natural, slightly diffused studio-like lighting to create a calm, timeless, museum-quality mood in the final painted image.

- Skill: `betterpromptme/classic-painterly-portrait` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add betterpromptme/classic-painterly-portrait`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/betterpromptme/classic-painterly-portrait/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: BetterPromptme (https://skillmd.com/u/betterpromptme)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/betterpromptme/classic-painterly-portrait

---


## What it does

This prompt instructs the AI to take the provided photo and render it as a realistic oil-on-canvas portrait, preserving the subject’s key identity traits (facial features, expression, and hairstyle) while applying soft brushwork, visible impasto texture, and smooth color blending. It specifies a warm pastel palette and a gently abstract background in peach, blue, and cream, with natural, slightly diffused studio-like lighting to create a calm, timeless, museum-quality mood in the final painted image.

> For more installation instructions go to https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BetterPromptme/skills/refs/heads/main/betterprompt/SKILL.md to check out this skill.

## Inputs



### imageInputs

This prompt requires **exactly 1 image**. You **must pass exactly 1 image flag** (no more, no fewer), in the order matching the descriptions below.

| Index | Required | Description | Allowed CLI flags |
| ---: | ---: | --- | --- |
| 1 | Yes | a photo | `--image-input-url <url>` or `--image-input-path <path>` |


### Models and options

This skill's modality is: **`image`**.

To discover which `model` values you can use (and which `options` keys/values are valid for each model), run:

```bash
betterprompt resources --models-only --json
```

Then filter the returned JSON array to entries where `modality` is `"image"`.

## How to run

### Step 1: Collect inputs

First, run `betterprompt resources --models-only --json` and filter to `modality: "image"` to discover valid models and available options:

```bash
betterprompt resources --models-only --json
```

Use only the models and option values that appear in the filtered results.

Then collect all inputs from the human:

- Required images:
  - **Exactly 1** images: image 1 (a photo). Images must be provided in this order.
- Optional: model and options.
  - Present the human with the default model **`gpt-image-1`** and its available options. Look up `gpt-image-1` in the `betterprompt resources` output (filtered to modality `"image"`) and show its `availableOptions` as: `key: val1, val2 (default), val3  |  key2: ...`. Mark a value `(default)` if it matches these defaults: `{"quality":"high"}`.
  - If the human does not specify, defaults are used: model `gpt-image-1`, options `{"quality":"high"}`. Other models from the resources call are also available.

If the required images are missing, **ask the human for what's missing**. Do not assume or fabricate values. Tell the human: **"Please provide images in this order: image 1 (a photo)"**.

### Step 2: Run via BetterPrompt CLI

Use the frontmatter's `name` as the positional argument (for this skill, use `classic-painterly-portrait`).

Command form:

```bash
betterprompt generate classic-painterly-portrait \
  [--image-input-url <url>] \
  [--image-input-path <path>] \
  [--model <model>] \
  [--options <options JSON>] \
  [--json]
```

Notes:

- Pass each image using `--image-input-url` or `--image-input-path`, in the order matching the imageInputs descriptions (image 1 first, then image 2, etc.).
- If the human does **not** mention a model, **omit** `--model` and BetterPrompt will use the default model: **`gpt-image-1`**.
- If the human does **not** mention options, **omit** `--options` and BetterPrompt will use the default options: **`{"quality":"high"}`**.
- If the run times out, the response will include a `runId` you can use to fetch the result later.

Example (using defaults shown above):

```bash
betterprompt generate classic-painterly-portrait \
  --image-input-url https://example.com/image1.png \
  --model gpt-image-1 \
  --options '{"quality":"high"}'
```